The semiconductor integrated circuit industry has experienced rapid growth in the past several decades. Technological advances in semiconductor materials and design have produced increasingly smaller and more complex circuits. These material and design advances have been made possible as the technologies related to processing and manufacturing have also undergone technical advances. In the course of semiconductor evolution, the number of interconnected devices per unit of area has increased as the size of the smallest component that can be reliably created has decreased.
As the sized has decreased, maintaining the reliability in patterning processes and the yields produced by the patterning processes has become more difficult. In some cases, the use of optical proximity correction and the adjustment of lithography parameters such as the duration of a process, the wavelength, focus, and intensity of light used can mitigate some defects.
However, the current and systems for patterning material layers in semiconductor wafers has not been entirely satisfactory.
For clarity of discussion, elements having the same designation in the drawings may have the same or similar functions. The drawings are better understood by reference to the following Detailed Description.